


Like Constellations

by kibblesnbits



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Family Dynamics, Fix-It of Sorts, Found Family, Gen, Maybe - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Tales of the SMP | The Masquerade, Self-Indulgent, Silas's varian goggles, Time Travel, horrible shacks- an adventure in brotherhood, love u <3 enjoy, so very self indulgent, this one's for you! points to purple.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kibblesnbits/pseuds/kibblesnbits
Summary: [It started with Bad and Ant, dropping from the ceiling like rabid animals, and followed by Punz and Ponk quickly behind them. Swords clashed, and Sam found himself back to back with Ranboo as the Eggpire's knights (...? What even are they?) went practically feral.It ended, however, with a flash of light coming from the corner where the egg was located, and the group only had a few seconds to whip their heads towards the disruption, before a white-haired teen drove a syringe into the side of the egg.]In which family is not forged by blood. Rather, it is forged in a mansion built with brick and blood, and later, with care and hope.
Relationships: Hubert (Tales of the SMP) & Silas | Butler (Tales of the SMP)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	Like Constellations

Sam hadn't expected it to go so badly. Honestly. He had gathered the people of the server who were against the egg, pulling people even as far out as Technoblade to deal with the issue that the server was facing. 

They had made it to the main room, armed with swords and masks to protect against the egg's contamination, when everything went to shit. 

It started with Bad and Ant, dropping from the ceiling like rabid animals, and followed by Punz and Ponk quickly behind them. Swords clashed, and Sam found himself back to back with Ranboo as the Eggpire's knights (...? What even are they?) went practically feral. 

It  _ ended _ , however, with a flash of light coming from the corner where the egg was located, and the group only had a few seconds to whip their heads towards the disruption, before a white-haired teen drove a syringe into the side of the egg. 

The cavern was silent, save for the egg’s alien undulating shudders as it sank into its death throes. Sam watched, open-mouthed, as the vines that had crept, insidious, over the SMP, dulled from arterial red to sickly rust brown. The teen near the egg sighed in unabashed relief, and it was only then that Sam noticed the smaller form draped prone over his back.

"No!" Sam was not fast enough to catch Bad from surging forward, sword in hand. He was followed by Ant as the two broke from the group of fighters' grip and made a dead sprint towards the two teens. 

The egg's attacker, however, was quick on his feet, managing to hop backwards right as the sword's blade hit the ground. 

“How dare you,” Bad said, hissing as he held his sword in an iron grip. 

“What did you  _ do _ !?” Ant shouted, attacking the newcomers with ferocious swings.

The teen said nothing, dodging the sword’s slashes with little difficulty. However, that might be attributed to the two attacker’s movements growing slower and slower with each passing second. The Egg’s defeat must have had more of an effect than before. 

The larger group, made of those who were against the Eggpire, came to a silent consensus as they made their way, slowly, towards the teen who was darting around the cavern with movement akin to a desert rabbit. Help or not, a threat was a threat, and this kid had just taken down the Crimson with a  _ flu shot _ . 

The Eggpire, on the other hand, charged forward like moths to a flame, roaring with indignation at their sovereign's fall. Their deteriorating ability hardly affected their speed, minus a few stumbles here and there from Punz and Ponk managing to fall and get trapped beneath the ash of a completely-rotted vine. 

Breaking through the sounds of fighting and feet hitting stone, however, was a small gasp. This was followed by a choking cough, echoing from the kid strapped to the teen’s back. Sam watched him glance back, a look of pure worry and concern overtaking his previously focused expression. 

“‘Bert,” the kid swaddled in a torn-up suit jacket coughs out, desperation in his labored voice bouncing around the cavern, “hurts.  _ Hurts _ \--” he gasped,, “-- it hurts, it hurts,  _ hurts hurts _ \--” 

“I know,” ‘Bert’ soothed, “it’ll be alright, I promise.”

It was a bit obvious that was not meant to be as loud, but Sam kept that thought to himself. 

In the fray, the teen grabbed a broken wooden plank that was jutting out of the wall, wrenching the splintered material from the jagged stone. He stamped his heel into the cave floor, turning to face the group rushing towards him, and to Sam’s surprise…

He started sprinting towards them. 

“What the fuck is he doin’,” Techno drawled, deadpan, from the sidelines. Sam nearly jumped out of his skin, but he couldn’t deny he— and everyone else— was asking the same. 

That question was soon answered. With grace befitting someone much older than himself, the Egg’s assailant leapt off one of the tendrils, using the momentum from his arc to somersault over Punz and land solidly on the man’s face.  _ Ouch _ .

He pushed upwards, grabbing desperately at a still-red vine. Punz went down without much of a commotion. 

With his arms straining, the struggle was evident in the way his knuckles grew white. The teen hung on by a literal thread but managed to swing his legs forward and hook them onto a hole in the ceiling. He pulled himself in, twisting to face the group on the ground below. After a moment of being practically pulled-apart by a teenager who just  _ vaulted off of Punz’s face _ . 

He took off afterwards without much hesitation, the sound of shoes on stone fading into the background. 

The adrenaline wore off quickly, and the Eggpire slowly fell to the ground as the Crimson’s effect wore off.  _ Finally _ . 

“Well,” Techno huffed, glancing around the room with barely-veiled interest, “that was interestin’.” 

ー

_ “You will never be able to return from whence you came.” _

_ The words on the torn piece of parchment practically mocked him. They tried to tell him something he already knew. What else would the answer be, after all? It felt like the monochromatic walls that lined the corridors were laughing at his strange dilemma, his little brother (Silas, he had named him Silas) strapped securely to his back and crisis sitting before him at his front.  _

_ In between sat Hubert. In between, he had to choose.  _

_ “It is a simple answer, is it not?”  _

_ Yes. Of course, he was going to say yes. This world, this dizzying palace and Sir Billiam’s cloistered, choking mansion, held no sentimentality. He carried every attachment he had with him.  _

_ “Do not forget what to do.” In the space between one heartbeat and the next, stretched as time always was in the In Between, he made his decision. _

ー 

This new place was strange, Hubert decided as he spawned above the Crimson’s cavernous home. It was a lot less… uniform, than the mansion. Than  _ anything  _ where he was from. 

Granted, he had never been one for building. The houses he built after escaping from Billiam’s grasp all those years ago were always either shabby, barely-standing houses made of fractured stone or broken wood, or caves he had carved into makeshift homes on nights of pure desperation and fear. 

In all honesty, Silas was the builder. The little butler he had left behind to forget his  _ own name _ (what kind of brother was he?) had made buildings out of books in the butler’s quarters before Billiam had become more and more obsessed with the Egg that rested beneath their home (he had always been that obsessed). 

Still, the world around him was a sight to behold, unfinished buildings dotting the landscape as he took in the structures standing before him and his little brother. It also only took that glance for him to turn right around and run in the opposite direction. 

This new world was unfamiliar. Strange, even. Despite the fact it was the same as the one Hubert had been in before, he couldn’t help but feel a bit… disconnected, as he sprinted through the forests and plains of the landscape. 

A cut-off cough made him run just a tad bit faster. 

The day went by sluggishly, but at the same time as fast as a rabbit chased by a cat. Hubert couldn’t tell how long it had been, but the sun had moved from its place in the top of the sky to the horizon, night beginning to creep up from between the earth and the sky. 

He slowed to a stop at the beginnings of a field, stars doting the sky every now and then. With creatures appearing at the edges of the forests, Hubert took a deep breath, and got to work on a quick (but functional) shack. 

Against all odds, Silas’s limp body still was clinging to his back. The boy floated in and out of consciousness ever since Hubert had made his grand escape from the crimson-drenched cave.. 

“Okay,” he exhaled, setting Silas down carefully in the newly-built hut. “Silas?” There was no response other than short, ragged breathing. “Bud?”

Another beat of tense silence, punctuated by Silas’s rasps. Hubert rocked from side to side, hands fiddling with the pommel of his sword and the pearls at his belt. He glanced nervously at the door to their shelter, every nerve screaming to  _ protect him _ , every sense straining for intruders. But there was no outwards threat, no evil to slay or inject, just Silas lying too still on the makeshift cot.

After what seemed like an eternity, Silas’s eyes fluttered open. He didn’t— or couldn’t—speak, lungs starved for air.. 

“Deep breaths, deep breaths.” Hubert patted his back, setting his own concern aside for his little brother. “It’s alright, you’re alright.” 

No verbal response, but that was par for the course for Silas ever since their time at the mansion. Instead, after his breath evened out, he met Hubert’s eyes with a mix of that barely-lost panic and exhaustion. He whimpered, burying his face into Hubert’s shoulder and letting out a shuddering sob. 

“There we go,” Hubert patted his head, smiling softly, “now, let me check out that leg, okay?” 

The two ragged refugees spent their first night as strangers in a strange world cleaning wounds and reinforcing the walls of their hut. Far above them, the constellations shone bright and steady, as if smiling to welcome the pair— if not  _ home _ , to safety at last. 

While still unfamiliar, the placement off and not-the-same, the stars were still as beautiful as ever.    
  


**Author's Note:**

> [Credit for Ranbutler/Silas's name!](https://snowflakesandlemons.tumblr.com/post/642164930350628864/for-ranbutlers-name-i-was-thinking-of-silas)
> 
> this is so self indulgent. big thanks to my goodbuddypals for beta-ing this, id be dead without you <3\. ooo you want to comment feedback ooooo you want to so bad 
> 
> Title from the Oh Hellos' "Constellations" :]
> 
> also, another ranbutler/silas and hubert fic i really like,
> 
> [red under your nails](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29207385)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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